Top 5 Oculus Releases – April 28th-May 4th – Go, Go Go!

With the launch of the new Oculus Go stand-alone mobile VR system, our top Oculus releases are extra focused on mobile this week. But fear not, Oculus Rift users: all but one of them are cross-platform, so you won’t be missing out on the fun.

Starbear: Taxi

from Funktronic Labs

Starbear: Taxi – screenshot courtesy Steam

Starbear: Taxi is – perhaps obviously, given its title – a game about a bear driving a space taxi. Funktronic Labs follows up their award-winning strategy game Cosmic Trip with a light arcade game featuring a natural physics-based RC flight system that’s easy enough for a child to pick up but engaging enough to keep even jaded, long-time VR players entertained.

It’s also beyond charming, with a futuristic cartoon aesthetic that draws heavily on that wonderful opening credits scene from The Jetsons, with added chubby bears and raccoons.

It’s also cross-platform compatible, so owners of the Rift, Gear VR and the newly released Oculus Go can all experience the addictive joy of bear-piloted RC flight.

Dead Secret Circle

from Robot Invader

Dead Secret Circle – screenshot courtesy official site

The sequel to 2016’s acclaimed and atmospheric Dead Secret has everything a fan of classic horror games could want: a mystery to solve, a gritty and well-realized film noir setting – in this case, early ‘70s Chicago – and of course a serial killer wielding a straight razor.

Dead Secret Circle also features a soundtrack scored by Ben Prunty (of FTL and Into the Breach fame), multiple endings, and again, cross-platform compatibility that even extends to conventional Windows and PC platforms for the poor souls still playing games in only two dimensions.

I Am a Man

from Derek Ham

I Am a Man – screenshot courtesy Oculus

Like last week’s DeathTolls Experience, this isn’t so much “game” in the traditional sense as interactive educational experience. Where that release combined journalism with VR art, I Am a Man sees VR designer and NC State College of Design professor Derek Ham using the medium to explore the civil rights struggle.

Using video and voice recordings of participants from the era surrounding the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ham brings recent history to the present in a new and visceral way that makes comparisons to King’s struggle and current American civil rights and equality issues hard to ignore.

Easy enough to pick up, this game is surprisingly addictive in spite of – or perhaps because of – the simplicity of its concept, and with both attack and defense options, range and melee attacks, and the added bonus of slicing airborne watermelons like some Shogun-era Gallagher, it has a lot more going for it than the typical Gear VR (or Oculus Go) wave shooter.

Back to the Moon (Google Spotlight)

from Google

Back to the Moon – screenshot courtesy Steam

Google made history this week with its first Google Doodle designed for VR. A short interactive story celebrating French stage magician and film director George Melies, Back to the Moon is a lovely little piece of animation that’s now available as a stand-alone download from Steam for Rift users.

Gear VR and Oculus Go users can also watch it through Google’s Spotlight Stories app.